I Am Young and Powerful, What About You?

What it is in your mind when you hear that words? Drugs, free sex or race car? Well, not every young people are like that. There are a lot of them who make a difference, invent something new and succeed to lead a great reformation for their country. According to United Nations, Young People are those persons between the ages of 15-24. Youth is the time of life between childhood and adulthood. Around the world, the terms “youth”, “adolescent”, “teenager”, “kid”, and “young person” are interchanged, often meaning the same thing, occasionally differentiated. Youth generally refers to a time of life that is neither childhood nor adulthood, but rather somewhere in-between. This is why people define young people as a period of looking for identity.

Young people are powerful and energic. They have more spirit to discover new things in their life and adapt to something new. This leads to a positive impacts and also bad impacts. In this writing, I won’t tell you about the bad one but next time I will.

Let us look into the past for a moment. Remember about Thomas Alfa Edison, the inventor of the light bulb? Mr. Edison achieved enormous fame with his lifelong contributions of volumes of inventive technology. He received the first of his 1,903 U.S. patents by age 22.

Another dude came from Japan, Soichiro Honda. In the age 12, he created a bicycle complete with the hand brake on his own. And in the age of 30, he got patent for his machine. And this time, Honda has been the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world’s largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines.

Still wondering how powerful young people are? David Beckham, one of the most famous soccer player in the world. Beckham’s career began when he signed a professional contract with Manchester United, making his first-team debut in 1992 aged 17. Beckham has twice been runner-up for FIFA “World Player of The Year” and in 2004 was the world’s highest-paid footballer when taking into account salary and advertising deals.

Those smart, energetic and famous young people above are only a few examples of many young people who can make a difference and change the world. In the history, there are also groups of young people who can make a revolution to their country and overthrow the government.

Let see in Indonesia when both political and economy crisis hit the country in 1998. A massive group of College students take over DPR (The House of Representative) and force the government to throw down President Soeharto who leads the country for 32 years in dictatorism. In Egypt on 25 January 2011, widespread protests began against Mubarak’s government. The objective of the protest was the removal of Mubarak from power. These took the form of an intensive campaign of civil resistance supported by a very large number of young people and mainly consisting of continuous mass demonstrations. By 29 January it was becoming clear that Mubarak’s government had lost control when a curfew order was ignored, and the army took a semi-neutral stance on enforcing the curfew decree.

So what now? There might be a big question among us. What can we do as young people? Are you gonna still go to school every morning and playing games when you get home? Or you can do something useful by looking at around you. There are a lot of things to do instead of being “normal people” who is doing normal activities. You can make a difference, you can change the world and you can be remembered by the time you are dead.

Think simple, act simple. Not everybody in this world will become a President, a Doctor or maybe a Hollywood Actor. Everybody lives to do their own things and become themselves. Let just focus on What you see, What you want and What you can do. It’s not a time to think big and dream big, but it is time to DO Something. Act.

If you are young people with an ability of sports, do your job as best as you can. Set your goals and become a good athlete. If you are clever young people with tons of books in your bedroom, do your best for your study and get a scholarship from Harvard University. If you a social type of young people and care about people around you, be active in your community by doing some community services or join to some Youth Organizations that available in your area. I remember the quote who is saying that: “If you cannot be a big road, be a path that could lead someone to get what they need.”

“This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the life of ease.” – Robert Kennedy

Hadi Aktsar

Hadiansyah is currently a student of Jakarta Institute of Arts. He was a scholar of YES Program sponsored by US Dept.of States to promote a cultural exchange in America in 2010-2011. He's The Ex-President and one of the Founders of Forum Anak Kota Malang (Malang Children's Forum). Spent a year in Middle East as a worker, he's coming back to his home country to pursue his dream to become an Actor. He has been involved in campaign & socializing about Human Rights, HIV/AIDS and involved in some international conferences for global issues.